cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/4711771

At least some of the signs were desgined by Anders Sandberg:

I found the image on Bruce Sterling's Tumblr.

The source is from u/FuckMyHeart's (reddit user) comment, which has a bit more info:

From the same comment and user:

all 23 comments

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[–] 30 points 3 years ago (3 children)

Important context: it's a mix of things that do and don't exist which all have a certain cachet with junk science. Tesla coils are definitely real, for example. It's just that junk/fringe science may use them to make their flimflam theory seem more exciting.

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago

    I similarly thought this was supposed to be a list meant to help you identify when someone is deploying fringe science. But in the context of the community (sciencefiction) and some of the other comments, I've realized that I think it's meant to be sample signs you could use in a story like at a lab where that kind of "science" was being done.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 3 years ago

    AFAIK all of them are fake warning signs but, as you said, some of them reference real stuff.

    I didn't add any indication that they are fake because I assumed it was implied by posting in science fiction communities. If not, I will add a warning.

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  • [+] 13 points 3 years ago
    [–] 9 points 3 years ago

    I love these!

    I guess I will have to upload my scifi NATO-symbols at some point, here's an example (it's a bipedal non-atmospheric reconnaissance mech):

    Recon Mech

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    May also include Anna Torv and John Noble, with LSD as a recurring guest star

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    I was sure number seven was going to be a joke about exiting vim.

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  • [+] 5 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)
    [–] 5 points 3 years ago

    That was a rabbit hole.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    The perpetual motion one makes sense I think since I'd something can run forever could you even stop it? Or maybe it holds a certain torque until acted upon by a greater force

    "The lumber mill had to be shut down because someone overloaded the perpetual motion machine providing power to it and now the bosses are trying to figure out if they can get it fixed or if it's cheaper to buy a new one, they just don't make things like they used to"

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    They seem more like scifi trope signs than fringe science signs.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    These would work really well in SCP wiki

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    Absolutely love the idea!

    Unfortunately I find execution lacking. There is too little visual consistency. Different signs don't look like a pictographic system, but instead as icons from different styles and systems pasted onto a common template.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    What’s the pitchfork referencing for anti entropy?

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I would say Maxwell's Demon:

    Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment that would hypothetically violate the second law of thermodynamics. It was proposed by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867. In his first letter, Maxwell referred to the entity as a "finite being" or a "being who can play a game of skill with the molecules". Lord Kelvin would later call it a "demon".

    In the thought experiment, a demon controls a small massless door between two chambers of gas. As individual gas molecules (or atoms) approach the door, the demon quickly opens and closes the door to allow only fast-moving molecules to pass through in one direction, and only slow-moving molecules to pass through in the other. Because the kinetic temperature of a gas depends on the velocities of its constituent molecules, the demon's actions cause one chamber to warm up and the other to cool down. This would decrease the total entropy of the system, without applying any work, thereby violating the second law of thermodynamics.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    The first row looks like something out of Half-Life.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Love that the tesla coil comes straight out of Red Alert

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    Yeah, I should put one of those "atomic switches" on every light switch in my home... but I don't think I have enough Higgs field stickers.

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